Archives of Disease in Childhood articles from December 2003

Archives of Disease in Childhood archives from December 2003

Sudden infant death syndrome: a commentary on the review by Goldwater.(Commentary)
December 1, 2003... If scientific research of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is to be judged on how well it now understands this syndrome after four decades of intensive research it has been a spectacular failure. If however, it is to be judged on the number...

Safety of herbal medicines in children: a commentary on the paper by Ramsay et al.(Commentary)
December 1, 2003... Herbal medicines are used extensively by children in the West. They are an important part of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). A study of over 500 children in the southwest of England reported that almost one in four children had...

Detection of leptospirosis in India: a commentary on the paper by Karande et al.(Commentary)
December 1, 2003... Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease of global significance. (1) In recent years, clinicians and epidemiologists have given increasing attention to this disease, with particular focus on two features: its epidemic potential; and severe...

The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH): a review of the history of confidential enquiries.(Leading Article)
December 1, 2003... The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) was established in April 2003. It replaces CESDI (the Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy) and CEMD (the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths); this...

Care in the community.(News and Notes from the UK)
December 1, 2003... I think that she must be about 145 cm tall, perhaps 40 kg, and about 60 years old. She might have been taller before, but now her legs bow and her back is hunched over. She's dressed in dirty, but not filthy, clothes which are nearly, but not...

Containing anxiety in the management of constipation: a common problem.(Paediatric Liaison)
December 1, 2003... Childhood constipation is a common problem to which both paediatric and psychological perspectives can usefully be brought to bear. The case presented here is an extreme example and, as such, shows some of the pitfalls as well as providing a...

Intussusception and the great smog of London, December 1952.(Original Article)(England)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1040-1042 Aim: To discuss the possible significance of the increased incidence of intussusception in children in relation to the "Great Smog" of London in December 1952. Methods: Cases of intussusception were...

A controlled study of sleep related disordered breathing in obese children.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1043-1047 Background: Unlike the adult sleep related disordered breathing (SDB) patients who are typically obese, the relation between obesity and childhood SDB is not clear. Aims: To investigate whether obese...

Uveitis.(Archivist)
December 1, 2003... About one in twenty patients with intraocular inflammation (uveitis) is a child. Uveitis in children differs from that in adults because of its association with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and because of its insidious onset. The latter...

Nocturnal enuresis is a common complication following cardiac transplantation.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1048-1050 Aims: To investigate the incidence of nocturnal enuresis post-cardiac transplantation. Methods: Seventy two cardiac transplantations have been performed in children under 16 years of age. All recipients...

Central core disease: clinical, pathological, and genetic features.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1051-1055 Central core disease (CCD) is a dominantly inherited congenital myopathy allelic to malignant hyperthermia (MH) caused by mutations in the RYR1 gene on chromosome 19q13.1. Eleven individuals with RYR1...

Herbal creams used for atopic eczema in Birmingham, UK illegally contain potent corticosteroids.(Original Article)(United Kingdom)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1056-1057 Aims: To determine whether "herbal creams" reported as being effective for the treatment of childhood atopic eczema contained corticosteroids. Methods: Patients attending the paediatric dermatology...

Factors relating to the infant's last sleep environment in sudden infant death syndrome in the Republic of Ireland.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1058-1064 Aim: To identify risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the sleeping environment of Irish infants. Methods: A five year population based case-control study with parental interviews...

The clinical and health economic burden of respiratory syncytial virus disease among children under 2 years of age in a defined geographical area.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1065-1069 Aims: To describe the clinical and health economic impact of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease in children under 2 years of age. Methods: Hospitalised children less than 2 years of age with a...

An observational study to detect leptospirosis in Mumbai, India, 2000.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1070-1075 Background: Leptospirosis is relatively uncommon in children. Following torrential rains and flooding an outbreak of leptospirosis was suspected in Mumbai. Aims: To investigate the possibility of an...

Childhood constipation is not associated with characteristic fingerprint patterns.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1076-1077 Background: It has been suggested that there is an association between simple arch fingerprint patterns and severe childhood constipation. If real, this association might be useful to predict which children...

Prospective randomised treatment with recombinant human growth hormone in cystic fibrosis.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1078-1081 Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of treatment with recombinant growth hormone (rGH) in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Methods: Twenty patients with CF (aged 10-23 years) were randomised to...

Hepatitis B incidence among South Asian children in England and Wales: implications for immunisation policy.(Short Report)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1082-1083 The incidence of acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is higher among South Asian than among non-South Asian UK residents, and infections in South Asians occur more often during childhood. The UK's...

Baby walkers: paediatricians' knowledge, attitudes, and health promotion.(Short Report)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1084-1085 Paediatricians were surveyed about baby walker knowledge, attitudes, and practice. Advising about walkers was associated with working in community paediatrics, treating walker related injuries, knowledge...

Adverse health effects of prenatal and postnatal tobacco smoke exposure on children.(Review)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1086-1090 Parents who choose to smoke are possibly not aware of, or deny, the negative effects of passive smoking on their offspring. This review summarises a wide range of effects of passive smoking on mortality and...

Mortality in paediatric epilepsy.(Review)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1091-1094 The reasons for premature death in paediatric epilepsy are reviewed with reference to recent studies reported in the literature. Ways of informing families of children with epilepsy about the risk of death...

Pimecrolimus cream for atopic dermatitis.(Archivist)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... At least half of young children who develop atopic dermatitis (AD) do so within the first 6 months of life and there is evidence that early treatment might affect prognosis. Topical corticosteroid preparations are often used but the possible...

Sudden infant death syndrome: a critical review of approaches to research.(Review)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1095-1100 This review explores the various research approaches taken attempting to solve the problem of SIDS. It would appear that major clues provided by pathological findings have been largely overlooked and as a...

Pulmonary and sinus diseases in primary humoral immunodeficiencies with chronic productive cough.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1101-1105 Aims: To prospectively evaluate sinopulmonary disease in 24 patients with primary humoral immunodeficiency (11 with agammaglobulinaemia, nine with isolated IgA deficiency, and two with common variable...

Culture confirmed multidrug resistant tuberculosis: diagnostic delay, clinical features, and outcome.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1106-1111 Aims: To determine the delay in diagnosis of multidrug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB), the correlation between drug susceptibility patterns of adult-child contact pairs, the effectiveness of treatment,...

The effect of HIV infection on paediatric bacterial meningitis in Blantyre, Malawi.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1112-1118 Aim: To compare presentation, progress, and outcome of acute bacterial meningitis in HIV seropositive and seronegative children. Methods: A double blind randomised placebo controlled study of the use of...

Brain haemorrhage in five infants with coagulopathy.(Case Report)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1119-1121 Most intracranial haemorrhages in infants after the neonatal period are secondary to non-accidental injury. Occasionally brain haemorrhages in non-mobile infants are due to an inherited coagulopathy. This...

Non-invasive diagnosis of tracheobronchomalacia using a modified ventilation radioisotope lung scan.(Case Report)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1122-1123 The use of radionuclide ventilation lung scan to characterise the physiological effects of tracheobronchomalacia is a novel application of this non-invasive technique. In the reported case the right upper...

Physiological periostitis; a potential pitfall.(Case Report)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1124-1125 Physiological periostitis is a known radiological finding in infants aged between 1 and 6 months. Two children with physiological periostitis mistaken for non-accidental injury are described. In both these...

Home oxygen therapy: beware of birthday cakes.(Images in Paediatrics)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The remains of the burnt oxygen nasal cannula belonged to a child with chronic lung disease on home oxygen therapy (HOT). He had always celebrated his birthdays with the usual cake and the appropriate number of candles. Admiring his fourth...

Evidence based guidelines for the performance of the sweat test for the investigation of cystic fibrosis in the UK.(Guideline Review)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1126-1127 A well produced evidence based guideline has been developed in response to a national audit that demonstrated wide variations in the performance of sweat tests. Accurate and reliable sweat test results will...

Population pharmacokinetics of high dose ibuprofen in cystic fibrosis.(Pharmacokinetics)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1128-1130 Aims: To evaluate ibuprofen population pharmacokinetics in a large series of data collected in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) treated with high doses of ibuprofen (59 patients; 2-18 years), and to...

Towards evidence based medicine for paediatricians.(Archimedes)
December 1, 2003... Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1131-1135 In order to give the best care to patients and families, paediatricians need to integrate the highest quality scientific evidence with clinical expertise and the opinions of the family. (1) Archimedes seeks...

Should a prolonged or short course of indomethacin be used in preterm infants to treat patent ductus arteriosus?(Archimedes)
December 1, 2003... A 27 week gestation infant is diagnosed to have a significant patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) on echocardiography on day 2. The infant is ventilator dependent. You decide to treat with indomethacin. The resident suggests that it would be better...

Is indomethacin or ibuprofen better for medical closure of the patent ductus arteriosus?(Archimedes)
December 1, 2003... A preterm baby of 28 weeks gestation with respiratory distress syndrome is admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. On day 2 of life, the characteristic murmur of a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is heard, with the diagnosis confirmed by...

What is the use of the glass test?(Archimedes)
December 1, 2003... A well 4 year old girl is seen in A+E with a rash and fever. Her parents have performed the "glass tumbler test" and she has petechiae. You wonder how reliably this test distinguishes petechiae from other skin lesions. Structured clinical...

Risk for occult head injury in abused children.(Journal Watch)
December 1, 2003... Risk for occult head injury in abused children * The leading cause of death in abused children younger than 2 years is head injury. Early detection can prevent mortality and serious morbidity, but there is no established guideline on screening...

Night lights do not increase nearsightedness risk.(Journal Watch)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Night lights do not increase nearsightedness risk * Despite considerable publicity in the popular press about a link between nighttime light exposure and childhood myopia, the association remains controversial (see Nature 1999;399:113; Nature...

Is the big screen going up in smoke?(Journal Watch)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Is the big screen going up in smoke? * Cigarette smoking among children and adolescents is a major public health problem in the U.S., and how best to prevent its initiation is a difficult question. These authors sought to determine how much...

New guidelines for pap smears.(Journal Watch)
December 1, 2003... New guidelines for pap smears * The American Cancer Society recently modified its guideline on screening for the early detection of cervical cancer. Guideline authors provide the following background information: * More than 90% of...

Liver transplantation in cystic fibrosis ... better care, new challenges.(Journal Watch)
December 1, 2003... Liver transplantation in cystic fibrosis... better care, new challenges * With improved pulmonary care, patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are living longer (predicted survival in 2000, 32.2 years)--long enough to develop complications in...

Hugh Downman and smallpox inoculation.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... If you have a burning desire to respond to a paper published in ADC or F & N, why not make use of our "rapid response" option? Log onto our website (www.archdischild.com), find the paper that interests you, and send your response via email...

Infant to staff ratios and risk of mortality in very low birth weight infants.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... We were very interested to read the article by Callaghan and colleagues. (1) They report a decline in mortality with less nurses caring for high risk infants over the first three days of life. This is a surprising finding, which is...

The use of sodium resonium in pseudohypoaldosteronism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... We describe the use of sodium resonium in a patient with pseudohypoaldosteronism (PHA). PHA is a rare but serious abnormality characterised by raised plasma aldosterone, but mineralocorticoid resistance causing hyperkalaemia and hyponatraemia....

Once upon a time ...(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... I very much enjoyed reading Storr and Rudolf's review of literary perspectives on childhood. (1) Appropriately enough, Charles Dickens loomed large. Oliver Twist is the first novel in the English language that takes a child as its central...

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 4th edition.(Book Review)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Child and adolescent psychiatry, 4th edition. Edited by Michael Rutter and Eric Taylor. Blackwell Publishing, 2003. Hardback, [pounds sterling]99.50, pp 1186. ISBN 0 632 05361 5 It's bigger, but is it better? For me and my...

What's the story? Illustrations, not run, but still fun!(Carton Competition)
December 1, 2003... We have commissioned a number of illustrations this year that were not published alongside the relevant article. Can you match each illustration to its original article? We will donate [pounds sterling]100 to the charity of choice of the...

Lucina.(low birth weight, celiac disease, sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory distress, placenta, bronchiolitis, nitrous oxide side effects, antiphospholipid antibodies)
December 1, 2003... In England and Wales in 2000 7.6% of all live births (6.1% of singleton births) were of low birthweight infants (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2002;57:687-91). Among births registered by both parents the low birthweight rate was...